Milgram obedience study Flashcards
what was the aims of Milgrams study?
to investigate the level of obedience we show to an authority figure when told to harm someone else, also to test the Germans are different hypothesis for the holocaust.
how did Milgram set up the experiment?
He advertised for male participants to take part in a study at Yale. 40 participants where chosen and paid four dollars an hour to take part in the experiment.
He created a fake shock generator and electrode system.
Milgram’s methods
the 40 participants where tricked into thinking they had been randomly selected as the teacher, they where each paired up with the same confederate called Mr Wallace, which the participant knew had a heart condition.
The confederate was tied down in another room and connected to a fake shock generator going up from 15 volts to 450 volts which was a lethal amount.
The participant would read out word pairs that the confederate was supposed to remember and would administer electric shocks pf gradually increasing voltage every time the confederate got one wrong.
If the particpants asked for advice or to leave the experimenter gave 4 verbal prods before they could do so.
the results of Milgram’s study
All participants shocked up to 300 volts and 65% of participants shocked up to the lethal 450 volts. This goes against the 3% prediction the psychology students milgram asked before the experiment.
Many participants showed signs of nervousness and tension such as trembling, lip biting, groaning etc.
And 14 out the 40 showed fits of laughter. One participant has a violent seizure which temporarily halted the experiment.
All participants where debriefed after the study.
what did Milgrams study discover?
Ordinary people will obey authority even when to harm other human beings if they feel it is the authority figures responsibility.
What are some strengths of Milgrams study?
It has good external validity as it reflects real life relationships between an authority figure and the participant and the lab setting helped in this regard.
It also has research support from the Hofling study which tested if nurses would overdose a patient with a call from an unknown doctor which reflects Milgram’s findings about authority.
What are some weakness of Milgrams study?
It has low internal validity as participants may have behaved the way they did because they did not believe the electric shocks where real but according to Milgram 70% said the shocks where real.
There where also ethical issues such as deceiving the participants so they couldnt give informed consent, it was difficult to withdraw due to the verbal prods and putting them in a stressful situation which could lead to long term harm.
What are three situational variables affecting obedience?
proximity- between the subject and the person they are harming, or the authority figure.
location- the area the study is being conducted in
uniform- whether the authority figure had a uniform on.
How does proximity effect obedience and how did Milgram investigate it?
Proximity- The closer the participant was to the person they where harming the lower the obedience rates, Milgram firstly made the leaner be in the same room as them which lead a drop in obedience to 40%. When they where supposed to force their hand on an electroshock plate leading to a further drop to 30%.
Milgram also changed the proximity with the authority figure by moving them out of the room dropping the conformity rates to 20.5%
How does location effect obedience and how did Milgram investigate it?
Loction- The location was changed from Yale to a run down building, this led to the obedience levels falling to 47.5%. The less trustworthy and authoritative a location was the lower obedience levels where.
How does uniform effect obedience and how did Milgram investigate it?
Uniform- Instead of a grey lab coat the role of the experimenter was taken up by an “ordinary plains clothed citizen”, this saw the largest drop in obedience down to 20%.
less trustworthy and responsible a person seems to be the less obedient we are to them.
What are some strengths of Milgram’s research into the situational variables effecting obedience?
It has research support, an example is Bickman in 1974 who found out people where more likely to listen to obey small orders such as picking up a bag or giving someone a dime if coming from a person in a uniform.
Milgram’s research has been repeated around the world such as in Spain and Australia, and done for female as well as male participants suggesting it has global applications.
Milgram had control other all variables so he could make sure all other variables besides the ones he was investigating where the same, He also did the the did the replicate test for 1000 participants, suggesting the results are valid and repeatable.
What are some weaknesses of Milgram’s research into the situational variables effecting obedience?
The study lacks internal validity as participants may guess the situation is the due to the lab setting or guess the aims of the researchers and then show demand characteristics.
Also many people see these situational variables as excuses for evil actions such as the holocaust which Milgram initially wanted to investigate why people would obey authority to do something like that.
